Friday, 5 November 2010

WW1 Tommys hat and the Trenches model

Well Im making headway.......sorry for the pun.....on soldier Tommy's tin helmet. Heres the bowl base for it, and with some simply jiggery pokery, its a passable and wearable tin hat.

All be it covered in foil and painted!

I forgot to photograph the inside after Id inserted a leatherette liner for the hat, so it won't slide all over the place when worn by a child.

I double sided taped the base bowl then wrapped tin foil round it, but it would obviously tear easily in use.

So having painted over the foil and allowed it to dry I then wrapped sellotape all over it to be sure the foil was not going to tear.

Now you dont have the authentic metal feel to it, nor the weight of the original tin hat, but it will serve its purpsoe in class for a visually impaired child, when others can view photographs of WW1 soldiers in uniform I'm sure.

These next two pics are the trenches model in its first stage of painting.

What I did with this is cover the dry modroc form with a good coat of gesso to seal over the modroc.

Because if you paint straight onto dry modroc, the paint doesn't stay put.

So a coat of gesso seals it and then you can blether paint on nicely.

I will tart the colours up abit next week and make some duck boards for the trench bottoms, wooden slats for the wall sides etc.

I think Ive found a way of suggesting barbed wire too........a metal slinky may work!

About Me

Ex married ( just the once), Ex Police, Ex RAF. Hmm I know, all those Ex's, but its not as bad as it sounds, honestly, so please don't be put off!
Im a Mum, a Nanna, a working CL-artist and one whose Creative Gene is always wittering at me to do this or try that... Its therapuetic fun and beats paying for a Psychiatrist.
Though considering Im here, talking to msyelf on a blog, I do sometimes wonder.........lol